(ThyBlackMan.com) One of the few things that African-Americans agree on is that everything is more difficult when you are black. There should be little debate surrounding the assertion that throughout American history, blacks have always gotten a heaping portion of the negative things that this nation has to offer its citizenry: lynching, rape, incarceration, economic exploitation, premature death, etc.
It is this realization that everything is more difficult when you are black that serves as my background music when I consider discussions that have arisen in the wake of Stephon Clark’s murder. I have found many of the discussions particularly interesting because of what they reveal about racial solidarity.
Most have always taken it as a given that blacks would come together to forge some response whenever one of their own was attacked by a non-Black. Considering this pattern of reactionary 
ambulance-chasing politics, I am confident that outsiders following the discussions resulting from Clark’s murder are puzzled by the emergence of a foreign narrative. The alluded to narrative is being led by black women who have publicly stated that they will not support the race on this one.
Black women’s decision to not rally for Stephon Clark is an efficient means of informing black men that they will only value those that honor them. From the perspective of most black women, Stephon Clark’s social media posts reveal that he most certainly had no love for the “sisters”. It was Clark who posted the following message to black women.
“I don’t want nothin black but an Xbox.”
Most feel that there should be some form of punishment for Clark’s lack of racial allegiance; in many ways, the murdered black man’s daunting perspective of black women reminds one of the manner that O.J. Simpson distanced himself from black women. Of course, Simpson’s betrayal ceased the moment that his fame and fortune turned sour. As you well know, it would be horrific attacks from the white community that he foolishly considered his own that drove Simpson back to Black America’s always-welcoming bosom. If nothing else, the refusal of black women to aid efforts to secure justice for Stephon Clark is an undeniable message that going forward there will be an entry fee attached to black women’s loyalty. The alluded to price tag appears to be the display of racial loyalty during non-crisis moments.
Were he alive today, Stephon Clark would realize that his maligning of black women, the black man’s greatest ally in the fight for justice, has cost him dearly.
Despite the revisionism that so many undertake in regards to the black liberation struggle, the harsh truth is that black activism has always pivoted on the energy and ingenuity of black women. What would Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference have been without the guiding hand of Ella Baker other than confused, disorganized, and directionless? The same can be said about Ella Baker’s influence on the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee. As a historian, it is a frightening thought to consider where black people would be without the contributions, courage, and leadership of black women who have always held the line. This issue presents an interesting query. What does this move by black women to place a qualifier on their support really mean?
Are these women justified in their critique of individuals such as Stephon Clark?
Emphatically yes!!!!!!
However, I have grave reservations regarding the abuse of any black person regardless of their level of ignorance or the race/ethnicity of the perpetrator, and therefore cannot fully support black women’s move to withhold much-needed support from the Stephon Clark’s of the world. Black women must be careful with how they consider the Stephon Clark’s of the world as it threatens to compromise their diligent commitment to racial justice. There is no doubt that black women must continue their march to liberation and commitment to the Race by aiding the Stephon Clark’s of the world despite the ignorance that emanates from an undeveloped mind. Although extremely difficult to remember, black women must be mindful that their cause is a crucial element in a historical struggle that is bigger than any single incident/individual (Travon Martin, Michael Brown, Sandra Bland, Tamir Rice, and the list unfortunately goes on and on).
This matter reminds me of Malcolm X’s infamous Message to the Grassroots speech where he offered the following admonishment regarding racial constructs that mandate black solidarity.
What you and I need to do is learn to forget our differences. When we come together, we don’t come together as Baptists or Methodists. You don’t catch hell because you’re a Baptist, and you don’t catch hell because you’re a Methodist. You don’t catch hell ’cause you’re a Methodist or Baptist. You don’t catch hell because you’re a Democrat or a Republican. You don’t catch hell because you’re a Mason or an Elk, and you sure don’t catch hell because you’re an American; because if you were an American, you wouldn’t catch hell. You catch hell because you’re a Black man. You catch hell, all of us catch hell, for the same reason.
In the larger scheme of fighting against a pernicious dogma that makes racially-inspired violence a reality, the victims do not matter as much as the need to continue the struggle against what such attacks convey. It is out of a historical commitment to racial justice and honoring our ancestors that black women must continue to fight; even when the subject that they are protecting has done absolutely nothing to warrant their support.
Staff Writer; Dr. James Thomas Jones III
Official website; http://www.ManhoodRaceCulture.com
One may also connect with this brother via Twitter; DrJamestJones.
